I have on one of my ships a character that appears from Sim news to have been a multi. The character has not been dropped (so not a lost soul) but as an illegal multi is no longer active. Is this character able to be made into an NPC like a lost soul and made over to me?

This can be tricky. I won't give you a blanket "yes" or "no" because some bans may have circumstances others don't. I believe this was done in the past, but only after a certain length of time. Plus we have that fancy "Claim Lost Soul" button so maybe they changed things?